The stop-motion studio behind “Coraline” is releasing its first film in seven years through a specialty distributor. Its director calls it a celebration of artistry over algorithms.
Laika has not released a film since 2019.
“Wildwood” arrives Oct. 23, 49 days from now, and it is not coming from Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. or anyone else on that list.
The studio went independent instead.
Who is distributing Wildwood
Fathom Entertainment handles the U.S. release. FilmNation Entertainment manages international sales, introducing the title to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Fathom is a specialty distributor best known for event cinema. It previously handled Laika’s theatrical re-releases of “Coraline,” which took $56 million worldwide, and “ParaNorman.”
Fathom CEO Ray Nutt described this as a full nationwide release “consistent with that of the legacy Hollywood studios.”
David Burke, Laika’s chief marketing and operations officer, framed the choice as deliberate. “Wildwood is a testament to LAIKA walking its own path,” he said. “We’re taking a more customized approach to how we bring the film to audiences, matching partners to the specific needs and ambitions of the project.”
What Travis Knight said about Wildwood
Laika’s president and CEO directed it, and his statement reads like a manifesto.
“Wildwood is the biggest world LAIKA has ever built, and the most personal,” Travis Knight said. “It’s a story about the pull of the unknown, the courage it takes to step into it, and who you become along the way.”
“Our movie is a celebration of artistry over algorithms, and of the belief that films made by hand, with enormous care, can still feel bold, surprising, dangerous, and alive.”
He added that the film was designed to be “discovered in the dark, on a big screen, with a room full of fellow dreamers.”
Knight has separately called it the hardest film the studio has made.
What Wildwood is about
The premise starts with a kidnapping and gets stranger.
After her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows, teenager Prue McKeel launches a rescue into the Impassable Wilderness, an enchanted forest hidden just outside Portland, Oregon.
Her classmate Curtis Mehlberg joins her. They find talking animals, bandits and figures driven by grief and ambition, and get pulled into a conflict threatening the forest itself.
It adapts the 2011 novel by Colin Meloy, frontman of The Decemberists, illustrated by Carson Ellis. Chris Butler wrote the screenplay.
The project has been in development for close to 15 years.
Who is in the Wildwood cast
The voice ensemble is unusually deep for stop-motion.
Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay lead, joined by Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits and Richard E. Grant.
Laika has been nominated for an Oscar every single time
“Coraline” (2009), “ParaNorman” (2012), “The Boxtrolls” (2014), “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016) and “Missing Link” (2019) all earned Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature.
Five films, five nominations.
Henry Selick, who made “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach,” directed Coraline. Knight has directed since Kubo, and also made “Bumblebee” for the Transformers franchise.
You can watch two Laika films on Disney platforms right now
“Coraline” and “ParaNorman” are both streaming across Disney+ and Hulu as part of the platforms’ fall horror lineup this month.
Neither is a Disney production. Both arrived through the 20th Century Fox acquisition and Hulu’s catalog, which is how two Laika films end up on the same service as Mickey Mouse.
Why stop-motion takes this long
Seven years between films sounds like a delay, but it’s closer to the actual pace.
Stop-motion is animated one frame at a time, with physical puppets photographed in sequence. A single second of finished film requires 24 individual adjustments and exposures.
Laika builds its own puppets, prints replacement faces in-house, and constructs full physical sets.
Wildwood is being positioned as the studio’s largest production yet, which is another way of saying it required more of all of that.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Laika, the official release announcement, Travis Knight’s full statement and Ray Nutt’s comments
Empire, the 15-year development timeline and Knight’s “hardest film” characterization
IMDb, the full cast list, the Fathom and FilmNation distribution structure and David Burke’s comments
Deadline (August 2026), the full trailer release and the five consecutive Oscar nominations
LAIKApedia, the plot synopsis and character names
ComingSoon, the release date confirmation and Laika filmography